Ilford captain Nigel Jacobs insists his side are playing for pride, the future, and even some individual accolades on the final day of the season.

The Valentines Park outfit are out of the race for promotion as they travel to Loughton on Saturday but the skipper says they still have plenty of reasons to give it their all.

Akhil Anil is in the hunt to be Division One’s leading run scorer with 740 while Mohammad Ahktar is the hunt for the most wickets taken with 39 in total.

“Loughton are vying for promotion, but we’re playing for pride, and to work out our team for next year,” Jacobs said.

“Like the game against Woodford Wells and this game, we’re thinking about next year or even the year after as well so we won’t be taking it lightly.

“To end the season with nine wins will be a really good effort.”

Ilford head into the final match after a 17-run victory over local rivals Woodford Wells where they posted a score of 172 thanks to Hamza Muhammad (55) and Aditya Nair (25) after a slow start.

Ilford then bowled Wells out for 155 in reply with the wickets being spread around among the bowlers.

“It was one of the most enjoyable games for me because we have been talking all season about when we get into these situations that we need to keep going and try get ourselves back into winning situations," added Jacobs.

“We were 54-5, the top order didn’t perform, but Hamza Muhammad and Aditya Nair played beautifully to get us up to 172 which was well above what we were expecting.

“The belief they had was amazing, with the ball Woodford Wells were 128-4, so to win from there was great.

“Special credit must go to Hamza, Aditya and Mohammed Ahktar. Hamza scored 50 odd and took the last wicket so he put in a real match winning performance.

“With six games to go, we had to win four to get promoted, so we were well within the hunt. It hasn’t turned out like that, but we’re not too disheartened, we know we can improve and get more experience to have another go next year.

“We lost two tight games against two good teams, Shenfield and Fives, especially the game against Shenfield we showed a lot of character. There is a lot of positives.”